Kiddie Entertainment
by EsmeAmelia
Summary: When Ben is sick, Han realizes that he enjoys watching Ben's kid shows more than he'd like to admit.


AN: I may not own Star Wars, but that doesn't keep me from writing about it.

"Kiddie Entertainment"

By EsmeAmelia

Ben was sick, which meant Han's morning had been spent pouring fruit juice, holding tissues up to Ben's nose, and trying to convince his son that yes, cold medicine tasted good and it totally wasn't yucky and it would help him get better faster so he'd better take it whether it tasted good or not.

Fortunately, things had settled down a bit since then. Now they were both lying on the sofa with blankets spread over them, their heads nestled in a big pillow, and Ben's favorite channel – a channel that showed only shows meant for little kids – was playing on the holovid. Right now they were showing _Mr. Friendly's Fantastic Trips_ , a show where a Twi'lek man and his daughter went on trips to various planets and taught about what people did in different places. In today's episode, they were going to an aquarium on Naboo, which seemed to be holding Ben's attention well enough to ignore his sniffles.

In fact, it wasn't long before the child's sniffles dissolved into cute little snores.

Han smiled at his son and kissed his little head. Hopefully now Ben could get a break from feeling terrible and retreat into his dreams. "Sweet dreams, buddy," Han whispered as he wrapped an arm around his son and sank his head into the pillow, facing the holovid and realizing that he could change the channel now that Ben was asleep.

It was a weird idea, switching to something Han wanted to watch. Since he stayed home with Ben while Leia went to work, they usually had kid shows playing most of the day. He wasn't even familiar with a lot of adult shows these days. A slight snicker escaped his lips when he thought of how the other guys teased him about it when they got together at the bar. Lando, Wedge, and even Luke would discuss the latest episode of this show or that show and then ask Han about what was good on the little kids' channels.

Well _now_ he had a chance to actually watch something for adults. He could switch to sports or news or . . . wait, Mr. Friendly's daughter was learning how the aquarium fed the gooberfish. How _did_ they feed the gooberfish, anyway? It wouldn't hurt to find out, especially if he and Leia were to take Ben to this aquarium someday. He'd just watch this part, _then_ change the channel.

It turned out that the gooberfish were fed by lowering dead fish into the water on giant cranes. Mr. Friendly's daughter squealed with delight when the aquarium attendant let her turn the handle on the lever that operated the crane. Han grinned – he would have definitely enjoyed something like that when he was a kid. Come to think of it, Ben would probably enjoy it too.

Though Han had intended to change the channel after they fed the gooberfish, he kept watching Mr. Friendly and his daughter as they descended into a dark room filled with ramps, only lit up by the fish tanks. As they went further and further down the ramps, they passed fish from deeper and deeper regions of the ocean, as if the ramps themselves offered a trip down into the ocean. Han found himself imagining what it would be like to descend those ramps and sink further and further into the sea, accompanied by all these exotic creatures.

Ben mumbled a bit in his sleep. For a moment Han was all prepared to tell his son about how neat the aquarium was and how they'd take him there someday, but Ben didn't awaken. It was almost a disappointment – Han would have loved to share this with him. Hopefully they'd rerun this episode when Ben was feeling better.

By now he'd almost forgotten about how he was going to change the channel.

When Mr. Friendly and his daughter got home, they sang a song about all the different fish they saw at the aquarium and it was a rather catchy song. Han found himself tapping his fingers in rhythm with the song. He should remember the lyrics so he could sing it to Ben sometime.

 _Mr. Friendly_ ended a few minutes later and next up was _Taun-Taun Songs_ , a show about animated anthropomorphic taun-tauns who went on adventures and sang a lot about what they were doing. Maybe Han could change the channel now – after all, the trip to the aquarium was over and he didn't need to watch it to prepare for taking Ben there someday anymore . . . but the taun-taun songs were always fun to listen to. He could go for listening to their songs on a lazy afternoon – maybe he'd even teach the guys at the bar some of the taun-taun songs sometime. Yeah, that would be fun. He wrapped his arm around Ben and settled down to watch the show, the holovid remote sitting unused next to him.

When Leia got home from work, she found Han and Ben asleep on the couch – with the kids' channel still playing on the holovid.

THE END


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